When I was pregnant with my first child at my last in-office visit, I remember my husband commenting on what babies need. When I responded a lot of stuff, the nurse that was with us scoffed, saying babies don’t need a lot of things; they just need: “Diapers, clothes to keep them warm, a place to sleep, and a lot of love.”
It is that basic. I remember when bringing home my fourth, thinking, eh, just make sure we have some newborn diapers. According to a quick Google search, babies will have their diaper changed up to 10 times a day, that’s 280 diapers a month. According to some calculations, a year supply of diapers is $936. According to The Atlantic: The Diaper Dilemma, it’s 6% of the salary of someone making minimum wage.
According to the National Diaper Bank Network, 1 in 3 American Families struggle with Diaper Need. Diaper Need is defined as The lack of a sufficient supply of diapers to keep an infant or toddler clean, dry, and healthy. Neither WIC nor Food Stamps cover diapers or wipes, leaving many families struggling to keep their children in clean and dry diapers.
1 in 3 Americans is our neighbors right here in Lake County. The Diaper Depot, our charity partner this quarter, distributed 185,631 diapers to 5,285 children in need throughout Lake County in 2015. Over 5,000 children were helped because people like you gave of time, money, and diapers to help their neighbors.
The Diaper Depot is a project of Catholic Charities and is run out of downtown Waukegan, distributing diapers all over Lake County through a partnership with 15 other non-for-profits. They are not the only ones trying to end diaper need:
Where to Donate Diapers in Lake County
- The Diaper Depot
- Twice as Nice Mother and Child
- Diaper Bank Project of Lake County {Wauconda}
- Food Pantries
As we have learned this summer, there is nothing hard, at all, about hosting a diaper drive. You choose how and when you will collect diapers; we’re collecting at all our Playground Safari Stops you can collect them at a family party, school, or your house. Choose who the charity is you will donate them too. Collect and donate!
For large scale diaper drives, like say a school. You’ll want to focus on the larger groups like The Diaper Depot, who can arrange to pick up and store your collected diapers. While food pantries appreciate the donations, they are generally not equipped to come to pick them up and may not have the space to store a large amount. It’s best to always confirm with the charity before you finalize your drive.
While you are confirming with your charity you also want to ask what their requirements are. Will they take open packages? Any size? While many will take any size some groups may know of specific needs that are not being filled, like needing larger diapers for a toddler.
The National Diaper Bank Network has a simple and easy guide and toolkit anyone can download to host a drive. You don’t have to be a large organization to host a drive either. Like hosting large parties or playdates? Ask everyone to bring diapers. You can ask people to bring diapers in lieu of gifts to a birthday party. Another idea is to host a baby shower for your chosen recipient. All the cute decorations and food without anyone having to go into labor.
Together we can help end diaper need for the parents in our communities!
The Diaper Depot is our third quarter charity partner as part of our Little Lake County Gives Back program, a community outreach effort to connect not-for-profit organizations with our readers. For more information on the program, please contact Melissa at [email protected].
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